Supplying required carbonic fertilizer and natural minerals and kilated herbal trace minerals for the Yala Season of 2021/2022. Sri Lanka Government has taken steps to ban the use and import of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides to promote the use of organic fertilizers in the country. Accordingly, the Ministry of Agriculture has identified the need to take immediate action to supply the required organic fertilizer for the 2021/2022 Maha Season.
At present there are 27 local organic fertilizer manufacturers licensed by the National Fertilizer Secretariat Office and considering the production capacity of ten of them, it is possible to supply carbonic fertilizer locally for 224,000 hectares for the 2021/2022 Maha Season and to manufacture the required carbonic fertilizer for another 100,000 hectares subsequently to make available of the required facilities for the identified farmers.
As per the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal tabled by the Minister of Agriculture to take the steps as follows.
• Appointing a special procurement committee on organic fertilizer, natural minerals and kilated herbal trace and a technical committee specialized for the relevant subject to assist the procurement committee.
• Import required carbonic fertilizer and natural mineral through the government owned fertilizer company for 500,000 hectares of paddy cultivation on 2021/2022 Maha Season with accordance to the international competitive bidding method and distributing them through the Department of Agrarian Services.
• Import the carbonic fertilizer through the licensed companies that have permission to import fertilizer for 600,000 hectares of the other crops adhering to the recommendations of the research institutions of the relevant crops.
• Import identified specific fertilizers for non-foodie charming plants, cut flower cultivations and non-soil cultivation through the Import License Method adhering to the recommendations of the research institutes of the relevant crops.
Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stressed that he will take up the challenge of making Sri Lanka the first country in the world to eliminate the use of chemical fertilizers, without taking a step back on the decision to end the use of chemical fertilizers in the country.
The President said the fact that no country in the world has abandoned the use of chemical fertilizers is not an obstacle to achieve this goal. The President urged everyone to get together to educate the farmers to create a healthy generation by taking it to the field, without limiting it to mere talks.